It was in Chicago where Ryan secured a reputation as one of the NFL’s best defensive minds. Buddy Ryan figured he and his family were poor, growing up in Frederick in the 1940s. Still, the Tillman County seat in southwestern Oklahoma wasn’t a bad place to grow up. Given his recent passing, it should come as no surprise that the entire Buddy Ryan family has been trending in search topics such as “Buddy Ryan dead”, “Buddy Ryan son”, and “Buddy Ryan wife”.
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He’s best known for the “46 defense” and the revival of the “Monsters of the Midway”. When asked about the accusation, Ryan simply stated “Why put a bounty on a kicker that’s in a six-week slump?” He died this week at age 82.
A few years ago, Ryan attended a Cowboys-Jets game, traveling to New Jersey despite battling cancer to see then-Jets head coach Rex go against then-Dallas defensive coordinator Rob. The Jets led the AFL in defense that season; Ryan also played a part in constructing a gameplan that held the Baltimore Colts to 7 points in the Jets’ 16-7 win over the Colts in Super Bowl III. All of the great defenses to come after it-like the 2000 Baltimore Ravens, the 2013 Seattle Seahawks, or the 2015 Denver Broncos-are compared to those 1985 Bears.
Within three seasons, Buddy and the Eagles went 10-6 won the NFC East and made it to the NFC Divisional Round of the playoffs in 1988, where the team was upended by Ryan’s former team, the Bears. Rex spent two seasons on his dad’s staff in Arizona when Buddy was coach of the Cardinals from 1994 to 1995. My love for football developed rapidly as I watched Ryan’s units chew up and spit out the rest of the league. He punched former Houston Oilers offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride in the face once on the sideline in a nationally televised game on ESPN. There’s no question, I think, that there’s not a mean bone in my body. But you have to be tough in about every business. From the day he was hired in 1978, his defenses bought into more than the scheme, they bought into him and took on his personality.
“Today is a hard day as I remember my friend and mentor, Buddy Ryan”, Fisher said in a statement released by his current team, the Los Angeles Rams.
“We were looking for a place to retire”, Ryan told the Herald-Leader’s Mark Story in 2011 about his move to Kentucky.
His son Rex is now the head coach of the Buffalo Bills.
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Coach Buddy Ryan of the Chicago Bears talking to Otis Wilson #55 of the Chicago Bears during the NFC Championship Game against the Los Angeles Rams on January 12, 1986 in Chicago, Illinois. Hopefully before [Buddy] left this world, he rubbed off a lot on his sons, because we’re gonna need it.
